Barbara's Heritage eBook

At this moment callers were announced and Mr. Sumner
said they would resume their talk some other time.

“It will be well for you if you can look at
these paintings by Ghirlandajo to-morrow morning if
it be a bright day,” he said, “while all
that I have told you is fresh in your minds. I
cannot go with you, but if you think of anything you
would like to ask me about them, you can do so before
we begin on Botticelli.”

Chapter IX.

The Coming-out Party.

Like the swell of some
sweet tune,
Morning rises into noon,
May glides onward into June.

—­LONGFELLOW.

[Illustration: PALAZZO PITTI, FLORENCE.]

“Well, have you seen Ghirlandajo’s work?”
asked Mr. Sumner, the next time the little group met
in the library.

“Only his frescoes in Santa Maria Novella.
We have spent two entire mornings looking at those,”
answered Bettina.

“We took your list of the portraits there with
us, uncle,” said Malcom, “and tried to
get acquainted with those old Florentine bishops, bankers,
and merchants that he painted.”

“And oh! isn’t that Ginevra de’
Benci in the Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth
lovely! and her golden brocaded dress!” cried
Margery.

“You pay quite a compliment to the old painter’s
power of representing men and women,” said Mr.
Sumner, “for these evidently captivated you.
I wish I could have overheard you talking by yourselves.”

“I fear we could not appreciate the best things,
though,” said Barbara. “We imagined
ourselves in old Florence of the fifteenth century,
and tried to recognize the mountains and palaces in
the backgrounds, and we enjoyed the people and admired
their fine clothes. I do think, however, that
these last seem often too stiff and as if made of metal
rather than of silk, satin, or cloth. And when
Howard told us that Mr. Ruskin says ‘they hang
from the figures as they would from clothes-pegs,’
we could but laugh, and think he is right with regard
to some of them. Ought we to admire everything
in these old pictures, Mr. Sumner?” she earnestly
added.

“Not at all; not by any means. I would
not have you think this for a moment. Ghirlandajo’s
paintings are famous and worthy because they are such
an advance on what was before him. Compare his
men and women with those by Giotto. You know
how much you found of interest and to admire in Giotto’s
pictures when you compared them with Cimabue’s
and with the old Greek Byzantine paintings. Just
so compare those by Masaccio and Ghirlandajo with
what was done before. See the growth,—­the
steady evolution,—­and realize that Ghirlandajo
was honest and earnest, and gifted too; that his drawing
is firm and truer to nature than that of most contemporary
artists; that his portraits possess character; that
they are well-bred and important, as the people they
represent were; that his mountains are like mountains
even in some of their subtile lines; that his rivers
wind; that his masses of architecture are in good
perspective and proportion; and then you will excuse
his faults, though it is right to notice and feel
them. We must see many in the work of every artist
until we come to the great painters of the High Renaissance.
You must find Ghirlandajo’s other pictures, and
study them also.”